Upon Request: My English II Rhetorical Analysis

Dating Between The Shades
Marriage is meant to be a lifelong commitment between two people. This therefore should not hold constraints on specific aspects of what these two people are like. What makes it so hard to date outside of your race or culture? There are so many questions when it comes to interracial dating. In the articles “Love and Race” by Nicholas D. Kristof, and “Making the Case for Teaching Our Boys to…’Bring Me Home a Black Girl’” by Audrey Edwards, they approach the issue to interracial dating in very different views, one supporting, and the other against. In this essay I will approach the topic of interracial dating, provide a rhetorical analysis on these two texts, and end with which essay provides a more valid argument. In doing this, this essay will show Kristof and Edwards view miscegenation.


What is marriage? Marriage as defined by Merriam Webster Online as a state of union between 1) opposite sex, or 2) same sex couples, that is recognized by law. Miscegenation is “marriage or cohabitation by persons of different race.” (Britannica Online). During Thomas Jefferson’s time in office, he pleaded miscegenation between Whites and Indians and Patrick Henry even persuaded them with cash incentives (Cruz & Berson). This did not provide hope for African-Americans who were considered a far cry from the English, and also “below” them. Among the many fears the Whites whom had migrated to America had, one of the fears were that if American-Indians and African-Americans banded together, they would be more powerful than they would have separate.

Throughout time, miscegenation laws prohibiting such marriage grew in every state. To help with dividing races after the mulatto – defined by Merriam Webster Online as “ a person of mixed white and black ancestry” – generation began to grow, Whites imposed the “one drop rule” saying that if you even had one Black ancestor, you were Black. Beginning in 1967, one couple was about to help to change all of this discrimination or interracial couples. Perry Loving, went to Washington D.C. to marry his African-American/American-Indian wife Mildred Jeter since it was illegal in their state of Virginia. When they returned they were arrested and told their marriage had no validity in Virginia. When on trial the judge gave them the choice to move or spend a year in jail. To Loving, the judge was ultimately saying that God made separate races, and put them in separate places and did not plan for people to mix. After moving, the couple filed an appeal and it reached the Supreme Court where miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional.
Audrey Edwards…